VANDERMARK/STRID/SANDELL/STACKENÄS/NORDESON
Two Days in December
Wobbly Rail
012
THE VANDERMARK 5
Free Jazz Classics Vols. 1 & 2
Atavistic
ALP1372CD
TERRITORY BAND-2
Atlas
Okka Disk
12050
Ken Vandermark seems to put out more discs in a year than some earlier
jazzmen did in a career. But if he keeps turning out fine sessions like
this single CD (Atlas) and two double CDs, then there's little reason
to complain.
Like other improvising musicians before him, the multi-reedman realizes
that the best way to keep things fresh is to consistently change playing
situations. On these five discs the circumstances range from a series
of duos with four different Swedish improvisers (Two Days); 13 recreations
of 1960s-1970s advanced jazz standards with his regular quintet (Free
Jazz); and a speedy romp through four original compositions as part of
a 12-piece mixed American/European band (Atlas).
The most challenging music is also the newest, recorded in December 2001,
when the reedman was in Stockholm for two days. Disc One pairs him with
saxophonist Mats Gustaffson's playing partners in the band Gush: pianist
Sten Sandell and drummer Raymond Strid. Disc Two features Vandermark duetting
with guitarist David Stackenäs, also part of cooperative Scandinavian
band Tri-Dim with Norwegian reedman Håkon Kornstad and percussionist
Ingar Zach; or with vibist/ percussionist Kjell Nordeson, a member of
the AALY trio with Gustaffson and Vandermark.
Unfortunately Stackenäs, who has done excellent work in the past
on his own and matching licks with folks like British bassist Barry Guy,
doesn't really seem to connect with Vandermark. Even though the Chicagoan
showed up with both of his clarinets and both of his saxophones, the seven
tunes often become a ritualistic display of extended techniques rather
than a mind meeting. Should the reedman output tongue slaps, key pops
and mouth percussion, then the guitarist turns from acoustic flat picking
to behind-the-bridge scratching. If Vandermark wheezes on his bass clarinet,
then Stackenäs produces constant cadenzas. Squalling baritone saxophone
lines encourage speedy strumming, while mid-range clarinet musings presage
folksy accompaniment.
By these standards, "Upptornande stackmoln" has to be judged
a success. Finally the polyrhythms conjoin, as off kilter tenor saxophone
chirps and slurs blend with multi-rhythmic National steel guitar-type
sounds. Somehow, Vandermark's straining, droning lines build on Stackenäs'
hedgehog scratches.
It could be increased understanding, or that unlike young Stackenäs
pianist Sandell is a veteran with many cooperative sessions under his
fingers. But his eight duets with Vandermark proclaim that here are two
musicians in step with one another. Throughout, the Swede quietly demonstrates
his piano mastery, playing what could be honky tonk rhythms one minute,
then diving into the deepest Cagean dissonance the next.
Take "Reeds and hammers VIII," for instance. Beginning with
full fledged saxophone blats and rolling high frequency piano arpeggios
that roam all over the keyboard, wiggling honking slurs soon appear from
Vandermark's horn as Sandell splays out what could almost be player piano
chording. Plowing rolling octaves means that you can imagine the pianist's
fingers blurring on top of the keys as he moves outside, successfully
countering Vandermark's honks and forays into dog whistle territory.
Multi-directed Sandell is as likely to go pure New music and reach inside
the frame, producing metallic plinks, as he is to sculpt single sharp
notes with minimal vibration and almost no tremolo. He works his way down
to the very bottom of the keyboard, sustaining the rumble with his pedals
on "Reeds and hammers I," forcing the reedman to go south as
well, just after the piano man has spent the beginning of the piece proving
he's a two-handed stylist with a faint suggestion of "I Got Rhythm."
Vandermark uses false fingering and produces elongated single tones elsewhere
or constructs a solo from the hiss of air forced through the horn. Then
on "Reeds and hammers IV," he spawns double-tongued blasts,
one andante, the other staccato as Sandell's pitch turns celeste-like
and speedy. It almost sounds as if a trio is in the studio rather than
a duo.
The remaining duos fall somewhat between these two extremes. Strid, who
is part of Guy's New Orchestra, along with tubaist Per Åke Holmlander
and drummer Paul Lyton, who also plays in Vandermark's Territory band,
is another veteran improviser. Unlike many reed-percussion duos that appear
to be stuck in a Trane-Ali Interstellar Space screech mode, this one is
different. Strid aids Vandermark in that style in places, but also uses
his percussion collection, which seems to include a glockenspiel, cow
bell, wind chimes and guiro to move most of the tracks closer to a more
spacious EuroImprov sound. With the clarinet in chalumeau register as
on "Knapp" for instance, when Strid does use his kit he manages
to merely touch individual parts at one time. Other times he'll move the
saxman into a Dexter Gordon-style emulation from wiggling dissonant tones,
as he comments with straight rolls and paradiddles that could be produced
with palms rather than sticks.
Nordeson, who is in the American/Swedish School Days band with Vandermark
and Chicago trombonist Jeb Bishop, also shows off his percussion skills
on what sound like unselected cymbals, here as well. "Always"
is the most pertinent showcase, where, when he turns away from his bass
drum pedal and tiny cymbal peals, he come across as a Scandinavian Candido
-- a Latin jazz percussion section all by himself -- while Vandermark
reveals a quick darting tenor tone. Many of the other tracks, however,
feature a mixture of clarinet and vibes that will never be mistaken for
Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton or even Buddy DeFranco and Terry Gibbs.
On the better tracks like "Where We Are" mallets seem to dance
and glide over the metal bars, causing the clarinetist to abandon the
comfortable chalumeau register for higher, more atonal pitches. Resonating
metal swing is somehow replaced by harsh wooden-sounding awkwardness other
places though. This makes Vandermark's formerly euphonic clarinet or baritone
improvisations appear excessively earthbound.
Free Jazz Classics Vols. 1 & 2 is another matter entirely. Initially
each CD was designed as a limited edition bonus disk for two earlier Vandermark
5 CDs, but audience demand necessitated their standalone release. Although
these live Chicago club sessions offer protracted sound pictures of the
reedist's working band of the time -- including saxist Dave Rempis, bassist
Kent Kessler and drummer Tim Mulvenna, as well as Bishop and Vandermark
-- the question remains of whether new versions of 1960s free jazz standards
are really needed.
Well yes ... and no. Vandermark et. al prove their mettle when they recast
the tunes so that they reflect their input as well as that of the composers,
who includes such heavy hitters as Sun Ra, Carla Bley and Julius Hemphill.
The band wouldn't want to be slavish re-creators of earlier sounds as
happen on many of the albums by the so-called young lions.
Not everything works however. Too many of the numbers written by musicians
as dissimilar as Ornette Coleman and Anthony Braxton, take on the same
sort of freebop cast. Kessler's rock-bottom bass sound and Mulvenna's
cymbal timing and snare shuffle are invaluable, anchoring the tunes to
a solid swing beat. But often the rough edges and nonpareil melodies that
defined the compositions vanish into the mainstream as well. It's possible
that Coleman never imagined that "Happy House" could be done
with a Latinesque beat or that Cecil Taylor heard "Conquistador Part
2" with a bass part so unvarying that it could come from an electric
instrument.
Furthermore, there also appears to be some role-playing going on. When
it comes time to reconstitute something like Eric Dolphy's "Gazzelloni,"
Rempis' alto saxophone solo appears to be a clone of those distinctive
Dolphy runs. On Archie Shepp's "Wherever Junebugs Go," the tenor
saxophonist -- most likely Vandermark -- mimics the older man's abrasive,
gritty tone to a T. Bishop fares much better. Since most of these compositions
originally lacked a 'bone part, he's free to bring his particular vision
to them. Thus Coleman's line and Frank Wright's "The Earth/Jerry"
gain fat, wiggly plunger mute work, with allusions to Tricky Sam Nanton
or Quentin "Butter" Jackson as much as 1960s -- and present
day -- model Roswell Rudd.
Overall, lesser-known fare like the Wright piece and those by Jimmy Giuffre
and Hemphill fare better than those by certified jazz icons. Bringing
his reed arsenal upfront, Vandermark can pour out blusey clarinet arpeggios
on one tune and pure bar-walking tenor saxophone squeals on others. He
and Bishop often work in tandem, chewing up and regurgitating lines so
that they assume a unique shape -- if that metaphor isn't too stomach
churning. Lester Bowie's sombre "New York is Full of Lonely People"
allows Kessler to unveil his own solid arco tone, making the theme his
own.
Arrangements, which meld the three horns into a powerful little big band
section, are an impressive Vandermark achievement as well. This skill
is brought into even starker relief on Atlas' four numbers, which range
from a little over 12 minutes to almost 181/2 minutes. Here his arranger's
modeling clay includes parts for Fred Lonberg-Holm's cello, Holmlander's
tuba and Kevin Drumm's electronics as well as more standard jazz band,
reeds, brass and rhythm.
Consider, for instance, "Neiger," which begins and ends with
the grating dentist drill-like buzzing of Drumm's electronics. In between
bursts of the writhing, harsh tones you hear burbling tuba asides, ascending
trombone lines and standard jazz piano chords from Jim Baker, all of which
are soon superseded by an extended Sun Ra-like unison space chord explosion
from the squawking horns. Axel Dörner's quicksilver, buoyant trumpet
tones vie for aural space with Kessler's arco slides, until rolling drum
pardiddles from Mulvenna and British improv veteran Lytton introduce Drumm's
intermittent drone.
"Catalog" written as an unconventional concerto for Chicagoan
Lonberg-Holm finds the main soloist sliding from EuroImprov rasps and
grinds to expressive legato lines plus some effects pedal electronics
that have more to do with Jimi Herndrix's guitar than anyone's cello playing.
As he solos, electronics crackle, a clarinet reed whistles, the percussionists
produce miniscule chain rustles and triangle pings and the piano's consonant
voicing and a gently swinging horn choir cushion the soloist. The piece
ends in a crescendo of horns, piano and electronics in different tempi,
plus a decisive shotgun blast drum beat.
Elsewhere the usually meta-experimental Dörner soars on his open
horn like Maynard Ferguson, Bishop unveils some rapid bebop-style riffs
that prove he's more than a wah-wah specialist and someone -- Vandermark
or Swedish saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist -- creates some bottom-of-the-rain-barrel
baritone sounds. Finally "Now," the longest track, mates nightclub
jazz piano with someone -- Rempis, perhaps? -- stretching a creamy Benny
Carter-style alto saxophone solo with a shaking vibrato into New Thing
altissimo squeals. Further back in the ballroom, the horns gradually get
louder as they come up with a swaying Andy Kirk's-Clouds-Of-Joy-via-Sun-Ra's-Arkestra
undercurrent chording. When the orchestral passages turn tutti, choral
sounds discharge in all directions, with squealing brass, honking saxes
and the diabolic drum duo bringing forth the power of another 1960s representation,
the Jazz Composers Orchestra.
Scorecard: Atlas is the best overall session and should be sought out
first. Two Days has good and bad points, as does Free Jazz Classics. While
not as outstanding, both two-CDs set have much to recommend them, especially
for Vandermark fanciers, free jazz fans or EuroImprov followers.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing Two Days in December: Disc 1: 1. Tuting; 2. Rackarbajsare;
3. Knapp; 4. Dragnagel; 5. Hutt; 6. Parla; 7. Reeds and hammers I; 2.
Reeds and hammers II; 3.Reeds and hammers III; 4.Reeds and hammers IV;
5. Reeds and hammers V; 6.Reeds and hammers VI; 7. Reeds and hammers VII;
8.Reeds and hammers VIII; 9. Reeds and hammers IX Disc 2: 1. Tofsformade
boljemoln; 2. Fjadermoln med krokar; 3. Slojmoln med halo; 4. Boljemoln;
5. Bymoln; 6. Skiktmoln; 7. Upptornande stackmoln; 8. Pathways; 9.Where
we are; 10. Doorways; 11. Morning of Stagnelius; 12. Always; 13. Common
prints; 14. Sideways; 15. Evening in Ashland
Track Listing Free Jazz Classics Disc 1: 1. Happy House; 2. 69L; 3. Conquistador
Part 2; 4. Goodbye Tom B.; 5. Saturn; 6. Gazzelloni; 7. New York is Full
of Lonely People; Free Jazz Classics Disc 2: 1. Wherever Junebugs Go;
2. King Korn; 3. The Earth/Jerry; 4. Scootin' About; 5. C.M.E./G Song;
6. There Is The Bomb
Personnel
Two Days in December: Ken Vandermark, tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass
clarinet; Sten Sandell, piano (Disc 1, 7-15); David Stackenäs, guitar
(Disc 2, 1-7); Kjell Nordeson, vibes, percussion (Disc 2, 8-15); Raymond
Strid, drums (Disc 1, 1-6)
Personnel Free Jazz Classics Disc 1: 1. Happy House; 2. 69L; 3. Conquistador
Part 2; 4. Goodbye Tom B.; 5. Saturn; 6. Gazzelloni; 7. New York is Full
of Lonely People; Free Jazz Classics Disc 2: 1. Wherever Junebugs Go;
2. King Korn; 3. The Earth/Jerry; 4. Scootin' About; 5. C.M.E./G Song;
6. There Is The Bomb: Jeb Bishop, trombone; Dave Rempis, alto and tenor
saxophones; Ken Vandermark, tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet;
Kent Kessler, bass; Tim Mulvenna, drums
Personnel
Atlas: Axel Dörner, trumpet; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Per Åke
Holmlander, tuba; Dave Rempis, alto and tenor saxophones; Ken Vandermark,
tenor and baritone saxophones, clarinet and bass clarinet; Fredrik Ljungkvist,
soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones, bass clarinet; Jim Baker, piano;
Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; Paul Lytton, drums; Tim
Mulvenna, percussion; Kevin Drumm, electronics